To be angry that the NHS doesn’t take pain seriously?

[LilyJosephine]

AIBU to think that the NHS is regularly dismissive of pain, especially if you are a younger woman? Maybe I’m biased as I’m a regular on the infertility boards (have name changed) where it seems like a lot of women are struggling with a late endometriosis diagnosis (and so now fertility problems) where their pain was dismissed for years.

But now I am in the exact same situation but with my back. After 2 years of extreme pain and having been told by a muscular skeletal specialist (whom you have to be referred to first by your GP as they gatekeep further referral/MRI’s) that there was no way I had spinal stenosis, as I was too young and it’s not genetic 🤷‍♀️ (my parent has it); and that I couldn’t have an MRI as she was sure it was just disc degeneration that everyone gets as they age. She was totally dismissive. Now guess what I’ve just been diagnosed with?

Finally managed to find a sympathetic GP (young male foreign locum if it matters) after multiple visits to others. He was the only one not dismissive of my pain and managed to find a way around to get me an MRI. It’s a good job he did as the spinal stenosis has now progressed to cauda equina and they sent me straight to A and E. The A and E back specialist said “You’ve likely been living with this for years (the spinal stenosis)”. Yeah, you don’t say? 🙄

Two years of struggling to parent my toddler due to the pain (I’m a SMBC) and now I likely face future back operations to avoid paralysis 😢I was planning on having more IVF for a second child and that’s possibly out the window now too. I’m furious.

Thanks if you’ve read all that. AIBU to think the NHS is dismissive of pain? An MRI back then when I needed one would likely have saved NHS costs now as well as my pain - it’s so short sighted!

Maybe, if you had the copper coul for 7 years unless you were a teenager when it was fitted, then TBH any fertility problems are far more likely to be caused by age than the coil. If you are still under 30 then I apologise for making assumptions.

@Neurodiversitydoctor I am 32, and all other hormone tests, ovarian and uterus scans have come back normal with healthy egg reserves and regular ovulation.

I do not know that the coil has caused infertility. I am saying if my next test shows I have scarring of my fallopian tubes, it is most likely to be due to the coil (having never had an STI).

Unfortunately it IS about the NHS as access to specialist and scan etc are gatekept leaving people suffering and in pain.

Regular testing is unlikely to become a thing unless it becomes more accurate though.

Actually Ddad was part of a trial of it - his “numbers” (I forget the detail) were only very slightly elevated so, normally he wouldn’t have been referred. But because it was a trial, they did refer him. And it was cancer.

So a normal or close to normal reading doesn’t always indicate that the person doesn’t have cancer.

Unfortunately the test also goes the other way and has a high false positive rate which is a huge amount of stress and pressure on resources to find out it isn’t cancer.

I expect it’s not cost effective to offer it as well as it being unreliable.

I personally also wouldn’t use America as a bench mark - it’s not unheard of for unnecessary tests to be offered there.

I have a chronic back problem (spinal cycts) that causes awful pain and have been dismissed for 12 years. I've had scans etc and mris, at one point I'd been having injections that the hospital then told me should never have happened at the GPS as they need to be done under CT guidance.

I've honestly given up trying to get help now and just live with the daily pain.

If you have something that can not be cured, many of us so, especially as we get older, then pain treatment can only go so far. Higher level pain relief often causes issues if used long term. And many people do not use lower level pain relief effectively. They take paracetamol for a day and declare it does not work, when it has a cumulative affect.

Ensure you get a dexa scan wrist features are osteoporosis fractures

This is because PSA tests are notoriously unreliable, throwing up false positives that lead to unnecessary investigations, while missing those at serious risk. PSA tests are thus only routinely given to those considered to be at greater risk due to a family history of prostate cancer, their ethnicity or because they are experiencing suspicious symptoms.

And men also benefit from the women's fight - my dh has just had his breast cancer screening letter after turning 50 - as men get breast cancer also

@MMUmum You can but co codamol over the counter.

I was kicked by my horse in Feb 2017, went to A&E, X-ray confirmed the break. Temporary back slab then an appointment for a cast.

When the cast was removed I instantly complained it was painful, but was dismissed, they also didn’t insist on physio etc as I still had the horse and that was sufficient exercise.

I was taking aspirin constantly for pain every day, asked a G.P and was told it takes time to heal, I was wearing two elastic bandages as it still felt as if the bones were moving and the break was bent like a boomerang.

Eventually I went back to my Drs in August 2018, I’d had enough. I explained driving our manual car was nearly impossible (left arm was broken). The Dr suggested I put my foot down and insist to my husband that I have our automatic car. This was the more economic car as he worked long distance, I just bimble around shopping etc. He finally gave me a number to book an X-ray, low and behold it was still bloody broken. The Dr rang me the next day and apologised, he said I must have been in a lot of pain, yeah, no shit Sherlock. I now have a metal plate, it’s still a little bent and painful if I knock it.

Now if I see this Dr he takes me seriously and still mentions my arm and how sorry he is. I explained to him that people with horses tend not to be on the mardy side, you just get on with it, oh and I’m a woman, we soldier on, it’s what we’re good at!

And yet there’s a mobile scanner in the hospital car park where my oh has his regular infusions for his cancer. I sit and wait in the car park sometimes. He can be there for 2-3 hours. During that time, maybe 1 or 2 people go into the mobile scanner, in for maybe 15-30 minutes, then it’s about an hour before the next person goes in. It’s certainly not busy. If they’re only doing 2 or 3 scans in a half day session, it’s no surprise there are long waiting lists. The cost must be astronomical to hire the machine and pay for the staff to do so few scans.

Neighbour was head of radiology at the hospital now retired. Scans are rationed here she said. These days. One of them takes crochet in to pass the time. They're frustrated by this.

Currently in an and e being refused medication and doctors won’t see me . I was born with my ichronic illness and pain.